Right I’ll start with a quick re-cap of what’s going on over here at “Webb Towers”, I am basically deep in the throes of batch painting up the rest of my Scrunt’s (by Bob Olley) as my submission for this years “Mo’vember” challenge, though I am not exactly sticking to the rules, I’m not going to go into this, (if you are interested read my last post). Anyway when last you saw the short chaps they looked like this…..

Well I have made some progress on them since then, you’ll see how much later in this post. But before I get into all that I’d just like to point you all in the direction of “Azazel’s Bitz Box” where he has now posted up all the participants work in his Unit-ed challenge (including my humble efforts), there is some simply stunning work on show there, and as soon as you have finished reading this (and not before!!!) I encourage you to go over there and be amazed!

Anyway back to my figures, and painting re-commenced as follows. European flesh was used to undercoat all the exposed “fleshy” areas basically their hands and the bits of their faces not obscured by bristles! Then after I added the eyes on the ones where you could see them (seven of the fourteen, are wearing glasses, I hate doing eyes so thanks Bob!) in white and black these a5reas were highlighted with more European flesh lightened with a bit of pale flesh. I turned my attention to the padding they all have across the top rear of their boiler suits next, again keeping with the colours I have used on my other “Scrunt’s” I went for royal blue that was highlighted with some bright blue. Finally this week I have made a start on the all-important facial hair they are all sporting, by undercoating these areas with either chocolate brown, dark sand, light sand, chestnut brown, or dark grey, these will of course be highlighted with lighter versions of themselves next, but more on that next time.

So only a short post this time, but at least I think I’m over the brow of the hill now, they might even be finished in the next post but till then… cheers Roger.

There are two types of figures in my house, those that get painted almost immediately and the ones that hang about unpainted for years and it’s from this second (much larger group, if I’m honest) group that this month’s figures come Yes I said “month” not “week” as I will explain in a minute. Anyway I have dug out all my remaining Scrunt’s by Bob Olley (fourteen light infantry to be exact) for completion this month, and why have you done that? I hear you ask (or perhaps it’s just the voices in my head).

Well first off it’s “Mo’vember”, what? I hear you ask again (get them off me Sam!*), well basically all participants (and it looks like it’s just me this year, just call me “Billy no mates!!”) agree to paint up at least one figure with facial hair of some description each week for the month of November, hence the Scrunt’s, as they cover this area of the rules admirably, however I have decided that rather than painting up three or four complete figures a week (and probably failing miserably) I would batch paint the lot and just post “work in progress” posts each week or so as I go along, not really sticking to the “Mo’vember” rules of “one fig per week”, but instead “clinging” to the spirit of the event by (hopefully) completing four weeks’ worth of “beardies” by the end of the month.

This approach has one more benefit, in as much as it also means I can cross off two boxes (one on each list) from my “Random Painting Generator” lists “Lancelot and Galahad” (don’t ask) so….

Box 15 – (Scrunt’s three figures of choice)

So once the figures were cleaned up and any flash/mould lines were removed, and I’d glued the two separate weapons onto the figure in the centre of the photo (left), the figures were as usual all based up on the ubiquitous “two pence piece” with a couple of thin squares of card glued between the coin and the figures bases to lift them up to my usual preferred base thickness (yes I am THAT anal!). Then taking my trusty tub of “Tetrion” all-purpose filler I built up the areas around the feet of the figures and once this was dry it was out to the garage for a spray coat of matt black car spray. This was then “touched up” with a brush and my pot of matt black acrylic. As I hope to add these chaps to my “Scrunt” forces I went with a colour scheme that is similar to the rest of the figures (see link at the bottom of the post to see these), so after I’d given their weapons a dry-brushing of chainmail I painted their overalls with some blue grey, then once dry (and by the time I’d got to the fourteenth the first was dry, a bit like painting the forth bridge!) I mixed some more of the blue grey with some white and highlighted them with this. Next up were their boots and belts so these areas were painted with come chocolate brown and were then I highlight here with some leather brown, and as you can see from the photo’s that is where I’m up to so far, still a way to go but I’m reasonably happy with how far I’ve got.

Well as the title says, I have now completed all the figures (and scenery) from the “Mantic Games” board game “Dungeon Saga”, and I have to admit this nearly broke me! Though I have only been at these for the last two months it seems like I been painting them forever! Anyway this does mean I have completed Azazels “Un’ited” challenge by finishing all the figure in a unit or game (go me!) and have “sort of” finished my last submission for “Zom’tober”, though I didn’t hit the one zombie a week target, I did do nine over the month, so I’m going to take that as a win too (please don’t point out my deficiencies here, as I might just break down in tears if you do!). Anyway all I had left to do this last week (or so, sorry) was complete the three “zombie trolls” included in the game, and I was sadly lulled into a false sense of security by Keith of “Dead Dicks Tavern” fame*, as he had painted these figures up a few weeks ago and had appeared to have got beautiful results in under a week, so though I was a little daunted by the big trolls, I thought They shouldn’t be a problem to get done in a week (wrong!). Work is still conspiring to suck up all my time when I’m not sleeping, I apologize that I keep bleating on about this, I know nearly all of you have jobs too, but this is really starting to get me down (they nave obviously never heard the term “work life balance!”, and it looks like it will be like this till Christmas (and before anyone makes any jokes, no I do not work at the “North Pole” with a jolly fat man in red!). Still enough moaning, and on with the figures, “Hoggar” the “Zombie Troll Shaman” is a character figure and therefore had a character card detailing his special abilities, and I have printed the illustrated image of him next to the finished figures for comparison. All the figures were begun in my usual manner, with a spray coat of matt black.

Hoggar, I decided to begin the Shaman by tackling his flesh first, so trying to match the colour of the “official” picture I mixed some khaki and coffee on the figure by slapping both colours about here and then blending them into each other, then once dry I gave this a further dry-brushing with more coffee. Next I turned to the various wounds about his person painting them dark red, then adding some details here with continental flesh mixed with some Polish crimson, and the odd bit of exposed bone with cream. Then taking my chocolate brown I added all the leather and wooden parts highlighting them in either leather brown or butternut respectively. Eyes and mouth (what there is of it) came next, black with white pupils for the eyes, and cream teeth on dark red gums taking care of these. His clothes I did in a mix of olive green and deep bronze green, with more olive green highlights (this is actually closer to the colour of the illustration than the photo appears). The rings on his harness and the edges of the covering at the top of his back I did with some chainmail, dry-brushed with rust, and the cover itself I did in deep bronze green with more of the same mixed with more olive green. The various skulls and the bone atop his staff was then painted coffee with cream highlights. He has some feathers hooked under the strapping on his arm, and these were added in navy blue with royal blue highlights. That just left me to add the various bits of “gore” around his wounds and hands in bright red (not on the original illustration, but hey what can I say I’m a sick puppy!).

Zombie trolls, the other two “trolls” are minor “bit part players” and so don’t have official colour schemes so I had free reign as to what colours I used, so beginning with their flesh once again I painted splodges of stone green, olive pale flesh, dark grey, and coffee (though not all of the colours went on both figures, but all did go on one or the other, if that makes sense). These were then blended into each other with the darker one then being dry-brushed with a coffee and stone green, and the lighter one with pale flesh. There wounds were added next as I did with Hoggar, as were their eyes and mouths. Their loincloths were then added in chocolate brown, with leather highlights, and where they were folded back at the waists I added the other side of the leather in khaki with coffee highlights. They too had the skulls hanging from their belts added in coffee and cream before they too were “gored up” with some bright red.

All three figures then had their flagstone bases dry-brushed in successive ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white and then I added the various scattered bones these bigger bases feature in black dry-brushed with coffee and then cream. They were then given a coat of strong tone “Quickshade” and once that was dry I followed this up with a coat of Humbrol matt varnish. I’ll finish off with the obligatory photo of all the Dungeon Saga miniatures, including our somewhat outnumbered heroes.

Next week see’s the start of November, or Mo’vember as we like to call it, where each week you have to complete at least one figure featuring facial hair of some description. Now I have got some figures put aside in preparation for this though given the somewhat irregularity to my postings at the moment, getting out a post every weekend seems a little ambitious, however I will be painting “Beardies” for the next month or so as I would like them finished before the end of the year, so we’ll see how I get on (or not) then.

OK just a quick post this week (by my standards anyway), as time is still very much against me, and I’m still playing catch up. Four figures that fit in well with this months themed challenges, zombies for “Zomtober” and Dungeon Saga mini’s for the “Unit-ed” challenge. So without further ado I give you….four zombies.

As they are all the same basic thing I’m going to cover the painting of them to together, so working up from my usual black undercoat, I took some dark grey, stone green, flesh tone 7 (dark flesh), pale flesh, leather brown and coffee and blobbed them out onto a “Pringles” lid. Then in my usual way of painting zombies various mixes of the above colours were applied “willy, nilly” across all the exposed flesh areas of all four figures then blended into each other giving various sickly flesh tones from green to grey. The eyes and mouths were added next using black and white, and then the exposed wounds dotted about their persons were painted in dark red with cream used on any bits of bone that were poking out. Then turning to the less well dressed “zom’s” I layered coffee and cream on their up raised bones (this was not as kinky as it sounds!! You lot and your filthy minds, I despair I do honestly!). Clothes came after this, chocolate brown with the same mixed with a little khaki taking care of the trousers on one and the loincloth on another, royal blue with the same mixed with coffee on the next ones trousers. Plum with more of the same mixed with more coffee on the other loincloth. The shirts were added next, coffee and cream for one and khaki with a mix of khaki and coffee on the other (that’s a lot of coffee! I won’t be able to sleep tonight!!). I spent a little while trying to decide whether they had hair or not, in the end I went with hair, two with black highlighted with dark grey, and two with chocolate brown with chestnut highlights. These colours albeit with leather replacing chestnut were also used on the belts, pouches in knife sheaths (why do zombies have knives I wonder?), a little copper used here on the metallic bits of the handles. Lastly I set about them with the bright red next again over the wounds and also around their mouths and hands, and they were done.

Next of course I painted up their bases with dry-brushes of ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white over each other, and then as always they were given a coat of “Quickshade” strong tone. Finally the then dry figures were given a coat of matt varnish with a “rattle can” of Humbrol. Oh and sorry for the awful pictures again, it just seems like every time I’m actually in to take photo’s it’s to dark to get decent results!